Better Than Dynasty Fantasy

July 25, 1987|By Orange

Wondering why the guy at the next desk over has that wrung-out, dazed look, as if he had been up all night slaving over a pocket calculator? After all, it's a long way from mid-April, when half of America has those IRS calculator-eyes. The answer probably is that, like half of America this midsummer, he has been trying to figure out how Peter Holm could spend $80,056 a month.

Mr. Holm, you'll recall, is the estranged husband of Dynasty star Joan Collins. Slightly more than $80,000 a month -- the extra $56 is a nifty touch -- is what Mr. Holm contends Ms. Collins should settle on him by way of support -- a claim that was hurt on Friday when a judge upheld a prenuptial agreement between the two.

The lesser figures that go into arriving at that grand one are positively staggering. Just shy of $2,000 a month for groceries? Does Mr. Holm have to eat every meal at home? Over $16,000 a month for rent? Where, in the east wing of the Taj Mahal? Another $10,000 for entertainment, travel and lodging? But isn't he eating at home? Yet another $12,000 a month for clothing and accessories? Just to sit around the kitchen table at the Taj Mahal?

Hollywood and Hollywood types have never been much like the rest of the world, but even by Hollywood standards this is somewhere out in the stratosphere.